


Restless

by TwilightLegacy13



Category: The Witchlands Series - Susan Dennard
Genre: - kind of but not really, F/M, Flirting, Jealousy, Miscommunication, One Shot, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:15:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27238663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwilightLegacy13/pseuds/TwilightLegacy13
Summary: Safiya fon Hasstrel is restless and Merik refuses to listen to her.  Miscommunication ensues.  A one-shot.
Relationships: Safiya fon Hasstrel/Merik Nihar
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	Restless

**Author's Note:**

> This concept was inspired by insertfruitpun, and I kept thinking about it, so I had to write about it.
> 
> Content warning: Mild language.

It simply wasn’t fair, Safi decided. She knew that Merik was a busy man—of _course_ he was a busy man; he was the prince of Nubrevna—but to ignore her entirely crossed a line from being engaged to simply being rude.

It wasn’t her fault that Aeduan had gone to what he called an “essential” meeting being held at the monastery with the rest of the monks, leaving Owl in Iseult’s charge while he was gone. It certainly wasn’t her fault that she was in Lovats, a place still fairly unfamiliar to her, with next to nothing to do.

So she’d marched up to Merik’s office, which he had set up in Pin’s Keep adjacent to his sister’s, and knocked on the door. He was the only person in Lovats that she knew well enough to trust that he’d occupy her time with something worthwhile, or at least be company for her when she felt this agitated.

It took more than a half dozen sets of knocks to receive any response from Merik, and even then his voice was absent. “Hye?”

“You can’t run the country from the keep all the time,” Safi called. “Open up.”

“Same lock-spell,” he said, and she tapped out the pattern over the lock of the door handle. Over the past few weeks, she’d visited him in his office often enough that she’d memorized the lock-spell. Asking him to open the door had been out of mere courtesy, though apparently he couldn’t be bothered to get up and welcome her inside.

The room was simple and undecorated, designed for working and organizing above all else. Merik wasn’t even supposed to spend much time here, as most of it was the job of Vivia and her advisors, but he had apparently taken up more and more tasks in the city as time went on. Even now, he was surrounded by files and records, and didn’t look up when Safi entered.

She leaned against the side of his desk and picked up one of the many papers there. It was filled with enough tax records and damned numbers to make her head swim. “What’s this?”

“Don’t move that, please,” Merik murmured, not raising his head. “I’m using it.”

“For what, though?” she pressed, returning the paper to its rightful place. “I’ve barely even seen you lately. Do you sleep in here?”

He sighed, scratching something out on the file closest to him before reaching for a new set of documents. He still hadn’t looked at her once. “No, Safi, I don’t sleep in here. I just have a lot to do. What do you need?”

He asked it with an air of resignation, like he was preparing to add another item on his list to accomplish. Well, Safi didn’t like _that_. Then again, he was probably dealing with so much that another person approaching him would seem like something else being asked of him.

She could do something about that.

“I need you to take a break,” Safi said, leaning forward until he was forced to glance up from his papers and look her in the eyes. “Come on, you’ve been working yourself half sick lately, and surely all of this can wait a little while.”

“Well, it can’t.” He made as if to return to his files, but she reached out to touch his shoulder.

“Lovats has horses, right?” she asked, despite already knowing the answer. “Let’s go for a ride outside the city, get away from all of this for a while.”

Merik shook his head. “Can’t. They all belong to the vizers. If you want to ask Vizer Eltar to borrow his horse, be my guest.”

Undeterred, she combed through her mind for other options. Looking through the singular office window, Safi saw the water-bridges crossing the city and the open port beyond. _Of course_. “Let’s take out a skiff. It’s a beautiful day.”

“I don’t have time, and you shouldn’t do that either.” He made eye contact with her again, though this time it seemed to be for no reason other than to make her see how serious he was. It was hardly necessary, as the truth rang in his words. “The skiffs are too small, and the tides are dangerous this time of year.”

“Then hell-gates, what _do_ you want to do?” Safi asked with an impatient sigh. “You need to get out of here.”

Now it was Merik’s turn to sigh sharply. “No, I do not. I have work to do. And—here, your hand is covering the forms—thank you.”

“Does it matter? Do you have to do any of this right now?” She picked up another of the files and skimmed through it. This one was filled with records of the resources and occupants of the under-city. _This is for Vivia_ , Safi realized, flipping through the pages to see if she’d missed anything. No, all of it was figures of the under-city and work that should have been Vivia’s. “Isn’t this your sister’s job?”

“Hye,” he said vaguely and without further clarification as he scribbled down a few more numbers.

This was ridiculous. “Well, then, you shouldn’t be doing it. You have more than enough already without those mountains of paperwork, and when was the last time you took a break?”

Merik set his pen down with a definitive snap against the wooden desk, looking up at her again. “Safi. What’s going on? You just wandered in here determined to drag me away from Lovats?”

“It’s hardly complicated.”

He raised an eyebrow that she took to mean he found it very complicated. “I think you’d be just as confused if I interrupted you during something important to decide that _now_ I wanted to travel the country.”

“I’m just…restless,” Safi admitted. “And maybe I came here to have something to occupy my time, but right now I think you need it more than me.”

“Why? Because you say so?” Merik shook his head. He looked tired, but resolute. “If you don’t need anything, please just let me work.”

“So you’re not even going to listen to me?” she demanded. “You’re only human, and you can’t possibly be tireless. If Vivia were doing this work instead of you, if you stopped thinking about the country for one day and thought about yourself, what would _you_ want to do?”

He drummed his fingers on the desk, his dark eyes neither looking away from her nor blinking. “I would want you to leave so I could get this done.”

Well, fine. Far be it from her to stay in his office and burden him with her presence that he so clearly didn’t want. She would simply leave and go find somebody who actually valued her company.

Except right now there wasn’t anybody, at least not who was currently around. Her Threadsister was looking after a child, the Hell-Bards were back in Ontigua, and Vaness was running a country. And, apparently, Merik wanted nothing more than for her to leave.

That was perfectly all right. Safi was sure that she could find countless people who wouldn’t snap at her for showing simple interest in their well-being.

And, of course, it would be easy enough to show that to Merik.

It was later that day when Safi received a transcribed note from Vivia, delivered by a Voicewitch. The queen asked Safi to meet her in her office in Pin’s Keep so she could show her something, which intrigued Safi enough to prompt her to actually go instead of letting it wait until the next morning.

As soon as she stepped inside the open door, she saw Merik and Vivia deep in earnest conversation, which was in itself an unusual sight. Stranger still, though she couldn’t hear the words they were saying from here, it almost looked like they were apologizing to each other. Safi certainly hadn’t ever heard them do that before.

Both of the Nihars looked up once Safi entered, but only Vivia spoke. “Oh, you came quickly! I just wanted to tell you that Vaness had a message for you, and I thought you’d like to see it.”

“Of course,” Safi said, crossing the room to get to the paper Vivia offered. _Her_ desk wasn’t as crowded with work as Merik’s had been, but it was still evident that she’d been busy before Merik and Safi had gotten here.

The queen handed over the folded paper, and Safi tucked it in her pocket to read later. It would be rude to read the message in silence while the siblings stood watching her, and she had a fair amount of pettiness to go through before leaving.

It wasn’t the fact that Merik wanted to keep working that bothered Safi—no, however much she might disagree, she knew how important Nubrevna was to Merik, and she’d never tear him away from his work when it was what he wanted, even when the work wasn’t really his. What had frustrated her, and what still did frustrate her, was how little he’d seemed to care about her own concerns for him and how quickly he’d dismissed her by saying he wanted her to leave. There were others ways of having a conversation with somebody, and ways far more civilized than practically ignoring them and then sending them away.

So she looked up from the message in her pocket and gave Vivia her very sweetest smile.

“Thank you,” Safi said brightly. “It was kind of you to tell me right away.”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Vivia replied flippantly, waving it away.

“It’s hardly _nothing_ ,” she corrected, stepping forward and keeping that smile firmly in place. “You took the time to let me know, and you know it would’ve taken a lot longer for it to be delivered directly to me. No one knows where I’m staying here in Lovats— _I_ barely even know.”

Vivia laughed. “Well, it was no trouble. And Vaness has had so much to do with the Sultanate lately that she’s barely even had the time to write, so of course I had to give you anything she did say.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Safi saw Merik shift uncomfortably, though she didn’t turn to look. She kept her focus on Vivia as though fully captivated by the less-than-interesting conversation. “To hell with the Sultanate. I’m just happy when she does write.”

“Of course. Can you believe, we haven’t all been together in person since the signing of the new treaty?”

It was, in fact, difficult to believe. So much had happened since then, and Vaness hadn’t been able to get away from Azmir long enough to visit any of her friends. “I think all this time spent by the water again has been good for you, though,” Safi added. “You look lovely.”

The words felt wrong even as they slipped past her tongue. Vivia _was_ pretty, so the compliment hadn’t been a lie, but the intention behind it was so false that it grated against her own Truthwitchery.

Vivia blinked. “Oh! Thank you.”

“Really,” Safi persisted. “I think there’s something about the sea that makes you look more alive. And your face is always so expressive, so you’re even more gorgeous.”

It would be more effective, Safi thought, if she weren’t so rutting awful at flirting. For someone who could sense truth and lie and had been trying to improve her perception of nuance, she was so thrice-damned blunt.

Another slow blink, though this one looked a bit more awkward. “All right. Thank you. Now if you don’t mind, I need to get back to the palace. Stix wanted to talk to me.” And Vivia swept away without another word, taking care to close the door behind her. That struck Safi as odd, seeing as she’d had the door open before this had started.

“Well, there’s nothing more to do here,” Merik said abruptly, swiveling away from the desk in a single pivot. “Lock the door behind you when you leave.”

He was halfway across the room before it occurred to Safi that he was _actually_ leaving, without a single word of apology or acknowledgement of his behavior earlier. “Where are you going?”

Merik spun around again, his jaw tight. “The palace. It’s getting late, and I don’t sleep here.”

She sighed sharply. As if she needed reminding of that, after what he’d snapped at her before. “You managed to get through that stack of files already?”

“No,” Merik gritted out, and he actually did look upset over it. “But it’s late, and I’m tired, and I was doing the work of two people. Is that acceptable to you?”

“ _Why_ , though?” Safi asked, repeating the question he hadn’t answered before. “Why bother yourself with the under-city if it’s your sister’s job?”

“Why don’t you ask Vivia? You seem to think very highly of her.”

His voice was rising, and she fought to keep hers low to temper it. “Well, maybe Vivia listens to me when I try to talk to her and at least pretends to care.”

Merik’s jaw dropped. “Well, maybe Vivia had the time to give you the attention you were so clearly looking for.”

“So I like attention. What’s shameful about that?” Safi stepped closer, not breaking eye contact. Not after it had been so scarce this morning. “You know, I don’t care about the attention. Not really. What I care about is that I tried to give _you_ attention, tried to help you take a break from everything that was worrying you, and you treated me like a child for it.”

“Safi.” He matched her pace forward until they were far too close for a normal conversation, let alone the heated one they’d been having. “Everything you said to me this morning, I said to Vivia last night. That she was doing too much, that she was overworking herself, that she needed time away from it. I told her to spend the day with Stix and that I’d take over her work for today, and deal with everything that she and her advisors normally do.”

Safi blinked. It was exactly the kind of infuriating, self-sacrificing, noble thing that Merik Nihar was prone to doing. “But she has advisors for a reason. One person isn’t meant to do it all, and surely you have work of your own to be doing.”

“Exactly, which is why I was so busy. Kullen was going to help me with some of the paperwork, but when Aeduan left to go to the monastery, he left Lisbet and Cora with Ryber. Kullen went to go help her look after the girls.”

“Ex-excuse me?” Her heart sank. Gods thrice-damn her, she was so stupid. Stupid and self-absorbed. She knew Merik, and she should have known that he had a good reason for acting so distant and preoccupied when she kept trying to talk to him. She’d meant to merely be petty and a little ridiculous to get him to see how he himself had been acting, but looking back on it, it had been closer to cruel.

“What you heard. So I’m _very_ sorry if I didn’t give you attention when you were asking for it.”

Safi was already shaking her head. “No, I’m sorry. I was such an ass, and I didn’t think.”

“No, you didn’t.” The edge had left Merik’s voice, though. “But I was too short with you, and I could have explained.”

“You didn’t owe me an explanation—and you did tell me you were busy. Multiple times, as I recall.” She laughed mirthlessly. “It was stupid of me to not listen, and I certainly shouldn’t have tried to punish you for my own stupidity.”

Merik pulled her into a tight embrace, his hands warm against her back. “We’re both sorry, then,” he whispered. “Don’t keep apologizing, Safi. It was my fault as much as yours.”

The responsibility belonged to her far more than it did to Merik, and indeed now that she thought about it a bit more clearly, she found it hard to believe he was anything but blameless. Still, he seemed inclined to put it behind them, and after how unfair she had been to him today it felt only right to grant him that.

He held on for a moment longer and then pulled away. “I need to change the lock-spell for my office, though. I was thinking this morning, and it’s a terrible security issue for me to have kept it the same for so long—”

“Not now,” Safi said with a small smile, squeezing his hand. Now that she was close enough, she could see the dark circles under his eyes, and even his posture seemed weary. “Go back to the palace. We can fix the lock-spell in the morning. Rest.”

“All right,” Merik murmured, his lips brushing hers in a gentle, soft kiss. “Good night, Safi.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are always appreciated! You can find me on Tumblr at @twilightlegacy13 or my Witchlands side blog, @thevoidwell.


End file.
